Muslims all over the globe are the victims of their own internal disunity, ideological and geo-strategic interests and hypocrisy. The key players in this arena are Saudi Arabia and Iran though the former is playing more negative and destructive role in the destruction of whole Muslim Ummah. The former is brutally involved in sowing the seeds extremism, funding and militants and hardliners as well ideologically supporting to the Salafis all over the world. In support of the argument there are countless reports, books and research papers which prove with proofs the horrific involvement of Saudi Arabia in Muslims’ massacre. The Muslim world is desperately bleeding.

Rebels in Syria are supported by the US-West and GCC. Rebels in the Yemen are going to be targeted by the US-West and GCC. Rebels in the Afghanistan and Pakistan are supported by the GCC, India and Israel. Rebels in the Egypt are attacked by the US-West, Israel and GCC. GCC is supporting the ISIS in Iraq. US-West and GCC are supporting ISIS and al-Qaida when they are fighting against the elected government of Syria and against the Houthis masses that are fighting for their basic rights where as on other fronts they are confronting with ISIS and Al-Qaida. Boko Haram another extremist group is making saddest history in oppression and tyranny. So what is rebels’ story? Mere gluttony interests and Islam as a tool! Wao, Muslims! Bravo! What is the fate of Arab spring? We can generally divide the world into two groups: the one which is selling oil to get weapons and the other which is selling weapons to get oil. The oil purchasers are developed whereas weapons purchasers are loathed. Difference is clear. The Muslim countries are selling oil and procuring weapons as well using these weapons against each others. After Iran and Saudi Arabia, the new headquarter of USA is in Qatar. USA is controlling, exploiting and executing the Muslim world from the soil of this fellow brotherly Muslim country.

There are many bitter truths that question the credibility of Pakistan. What did Pakistan achieve after washing American U2 dirty linen in international public in 1960? Since then Russia has sided India especially whenever we have presented the issue of Kashmir in the UN. What did Pakistan get after playing role in the disintegration of Russia and what did it get after supporting Taliban in Afghanistan instead of a national government? What have we secured after supporting the American protracted war in the region? And what we will we now get after supporting KSA in Muslims’ war with Muslims? In Pakistan, at this juncture, the general masses have terrorism, extremism, hypocrisy, target killings, grave water and energy crisis, mass illiteracy, social disintegration, poverty and a long list in their cradle whereas the looters, the political dealers and the grave incompetent so called leaders have everything to enjoy luxurious life. There is a vivid cheating with the illiterate populace but it is so stupid that in spite of so many stings again votes for the same ugly faces and wolves in the sheep clothing. Sadly they do not know that governments are hardly made of their votes but there are some invisible hands behind the formation and deformation of governments in Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Is Pakistan able to curtail terrorism, extremism and socio-economic crises on its grounds that it is ready to fight the other’s war in Yemen? Is Mullah Fazlullah caught up? Is Karachi safe? Are operations successfully completed in the Fata and beyond? Are the war trodden and step motherly treated IDPs who are never having a square meal returned to abodes? Are their belongings safe or have been stolen and sold? Saudi Arabia is hanging many Pakistanis on the cases of opium; why our incumbent government does not speak on this issue? More than seventy thousand naïve Pakistanis have been murdered on their own land because of wrong national policies, is not KSA behind it?

Yemen was divided into South and North in 1967 and 1968 respectively becoming two independent states because of the counties of GCC. At that time those gulf countries which were fighting against Israel were on the other hand supporting their favourite groups in the Yemen. The GCC always tried to halt the unification of Yemen but it eventually took place in 1990 because the people have least religious differences. Though there have been several tribal wars in the country but they were never sectarian. The current will.

Now Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, USA, Qatar and reportedly Pakistan are in combine attack on Houthis. Where were these countries when Israel was attacking poor and naïve Palestinians? Were they in deep slumber, liquoring and in brothels? The war seems never end in near future and will become protracted. It will result in the defeat and disintegration of KSA. Earlier it was not a sectarian war in Yemen as Shia-Sunni offer prayers in the same mosque but a war of rights and representation. But now it will become a sectarian one. Shias all over the globe will rise up and especially in Pakistan against their government’s irrational decision.

Unfortunately, Pakistan has never had patriotic leaders but just incompetent puppets including the incumbent. The country should never ever indulge into the proxy war of KSA and Iran but should mend its internal threats. Instead of entering into war, Pakistan should play a positive role taking all the warring countries on the dialogue table using the plate form of OIC. If Pakistan will not keep herself at bay in involving such wars it will have to bear sever brunt of its mistake as it is facing earlier. Pakistani establishment must think broader. National stakes ought to be preferred and protected instead of others’ interests. The country is in dire need of unity.

Pakistan’s support of Saudi Arabia against Yemen will ignite the fire of internal scuffles. There may rise a rebellious like situation. The India Muslim League did not support Khilafat movement in 1919 because it was not the part of its charter. And those who supported it had to bear its repercussions as well. Pakistan should learn lesson from it. It should secure its geographical and ideological borders as well should fully focus on internal development.

]]>0fugdhttp://www.fugd.info/?p=8832015-03-30T14:06:40Z2015-03-30T14:06:40ZThe Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) is proud to present the opening of votes for the ‘Aiyoh Wat Lah!’ Awards, and with it a fresh crop of bigotry from 2014.

Inaugurated in 2012, the ‘Aiyoh Wat Lah!’ Awards is an annual awards ceremony doubling as a public education tool, used to raise awareness about the pervasiveness of misogyny, sexism, homophobia and transphobia in Malaysia.

Having trawled the murky depths of media reports from 2014, JAG has handpicked the very ‘best’ statements and actions vying for a win in one of seven categories: ‘Foot in Mouth’,’ Insulting Intelligence’, ‘Policy Fail’, ‘Cannot Ignore’, ‘Least Helpful to the Sisterhood’, ‘Enough Already!’, and the single glimmer of hope through all the muck, ‘Right on Track.’

Discrimination against women in politics continues to be a disappointing trend. Last year, the focus on DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud was her appearance instead of the merits of her candidacy, and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was said to be unsuitable for the post of Menteri Besar due to her biological functions. These are just two examples of the inexcusable treatment of women in politics.

To this trend we at JAG have one thing to say: Enough Already! In addition to the treatment of women in politics, this year’s ‘Enough Already!’ category includes the continuation of yet another discouraging pattern – poor treatment of the LGBT community, justified falsely by religion or fallacious urgings to “natural” behaviour.

“The continued ill treatment of trans people in this country is reprehensible,” commented Kristine Yap, of Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO). “Malaysia’s federal constitution enshrines the fundamental right of all persons, including trans people, to non-discrimination on the ground of gender. Whether physical, verbal or emotional, the abuse that the trans-community has faced is unacceptable and inexcusable.”

Yet, we are happy to acknowledge the landmark Negri Sembilan case that sets precedence for better securing of transgender rights. In November last year, Section 66 of the Syariah Criminal (Negri Sembilan) Enactment 1992 which penalised Muslim men who dressed or posed as women in public places, was considered as unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal.

This is one ‘Right on Track’ outcome for the long-persecuted Malaysian trans-community. Since the awards began in 2012, public discourse surrounding the trans-community in Malaysia seems to have developed.

While there is no cause for outright celebration yet, JAG is pleased to see an extension of space for public discussion on issues of gender and sexuality which were once limited to women’s groups. JAG hopes to see a similar ruling soon following the appeal to the Federal Court in 2015.

“It’s been really heartening to see a broadening of public discourse for these issues,” noted Evelynne Gomez, of All Women’s Action Society (Awam). “I think that public education efforts like JAG’s ‘Aiyoh Wat Lah!’ Awards have increased awareness and extended the scope for an alternative point of view.”

Taking the show on the road to Ipoh

We are also pleased to note that this year’s ‘Aiyoh Wat Lah!’ will be taking the show on the road to Sarang Paloh Heritage Hotel in Ipoh. On hosting the awards for the fourth year in a row, the legendary Ribena Berry, as played by thespian and writer Jo Kukathas, declared; “As sexism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia rage across the country the ‘Aiyoh Wat Lah!’ awards take to the road. First stop – Ipoh.”

“We are really excited to bring ‘Aiyoh Wat Lah!’ to Ipoh, getting more Malaysians involved in calling out insensitive statements made by public figures in a tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony,” added Aliah Ali, of Sisters in Islam (SIS).

“The most important thing is for Malaysians to have a safe space to discuss and demand accountability for statements and actions that we can no longer tolerate from people in positions of power, and going to Ipoh is the perfect opportunity for extending this space.”

JAG encourages all members of the public to visit this site to vote on this year’s nominees, decide on 2014’s worst examples of sexism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia, and to join us in Ipoh on May 10!

]]>0fugdhttp://www.fugd.info/?p=8812015-03-28T13:31:37Z2015-03-28T13:31:37ZI’m please to see that this week’s Carmarthenshire Herald picks up on the critical report from the Wales Audit Office regarding child safeguarding which I mentioned earlier in the week. Featuring on the front page, it describes the report as ‘hard-hitting’ and the WAO’s conclusion that members were “unfamiliar with risk management as a concept” as ‘devastating’, and rightly so.
Indeed, and it’s perhaps a worrying fact that the council is trusted with the role of corporate parents for looked after children.
As usual, there was no comment from the council.

County Hallhas been equally tight lipped over the home care pay scandal reported over the past week or two by BBC Wales and, in detail, over on Cneifiwr’s blog. The story is given the front page headline in the Carmarthenshire Herald.

As I’m sure readers are now well aware, Village Home Care, or rather its parent company, Mitie, which is commissioned by the council to deliver home care to the elderly and vulnerable, is being investigated by HMRC for allegedly breaching minimum wage rules.

One of the issues is the ridiculously short time allowed to travel between appointments. Basically workers are not being paid adequately (an understatement) for travelling times, leading to ‘clipping’ which means that visits are cut short as the carers attempt to reach the next visit, maybe twenty miles away in the five minutes allowed.

The result of this is not only visits being cut short leading to poorer levels of care, but carers being actually paid well below the minimum wage.

The recent CCSIW report into Village Home Care itself noted the travelling time issue, lengthy hours and split shifts. It also found compliance failure regarding staff training, quality monitoring systems and annual quality of care reports.
The company was also informed it must not start care work without proper assessment and regular reviews.

This is nothing new. Locally, I am aware of several youngsters who were employed by Village Home Care. Once it became apparent that they were expected to work over 48 hours a week for what worked out to be about £3 an hour or less with little, if any training, they didn’t last long. Those I knew were kind and caring but it is fairly obvious that many companies are prepared to take virtually anyone on.

One remarked to me as to how they were expected to arrive at a person’s home at say 7.30am, stay there for the allotted hour then be half way across the county’s rural roads to the next appointment by 8.35.

This was at least three years ago. Yesterday the council said it would be meeting with the company. Presumably to have a go at them for giving the council bad press. This is the council’s idea of care in the community and it is inconceivable that they have been unaware of these problems. They have clearly chosen, until reported in the press, to turn a blind eye.

In addition, the council has just awarded four year contracts for home care services in the county and the ‘Framework’ agreement began on the 2nd March. Given that the issues identified above have been known for some time, and are possible not confined to just the company mentioned, it will be interesting to see who has been successful for the approved ‘framework’.

Lastly, this week’s observations from ‘Cadno’, who is rapidly turning into one of Caebrwyn’s favourite columnists;

“Carmarthenshire has branded itself as ‘The Garden of Wales’
and certainly the rich green landscape that rolls across the landscape between
Laugharne, Llanybydder, Llanelli, and Llandeilo suggests that there is
something to that description. Criss-crossed by a few arterial roads and many
small country byways and highways, the County’s charm is that wherever one is
one is not too far from a rural idyll.

The important thing about gardens, whether you are growing
cabbages or carnations, is a plentiful supply of fertiliser.

And so we come to County Hall, which produces more
fertiliser than would be needed by a garden the size of the Sahara: to a depth
of four feet and rising.

So overflowing is County Hall with rubbish that it has even
privatised its generation and recycling to its own pet company.

Cwm Environmental is a purportedly private operator in which
the sole shareholder is the local authority. In other words, and according to
its own website, Cwm Environmental is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the County
Council.

As he who pays the fiddler calls the tune, you might wonder
what advantages could accrue to the local authority by setting up a company in
this way.

Well, let’s look towards Llangadog.

Sitting near Y Garn Goch, Llangadog is one of those rural
communities that make up much of the patchwork of small settlements that are
dotted around Carmarthenshire. A former centre for droving, its years of
home-generated prosperity are past. It has fallen on increasingly hard times
over recent years. 200 jobs were lost when the creamery closed in 2005.

It
follows that Llangadog is a community that cannot take the loss of any jobs,
let alone the ten that will be lost there if Carmarthenshire County Council has
its way.

You see, readers, there is something unusual about the
Llangadog site that suggests a conflict of interest between the Council in its
role as a statutory authority and its interest as a shareholder in a private
company where the profit motive rules the roost.

Our Council claims that Llangadog is an unfortunate casualty
of its drive to save money. So skint is Carmarthenshire County Council after
outfitting the Almighty’s favourite bowling alley that it cannot afford to
renew its contract with the site operator, AWS.

More to the point is that Llangadog is the only remaining
site of its type in the County which is not operated by Cwm Environmental.

That Llangadog is an efficient and well-performing site is
shown by the fact that over 80% of rubbish brought to the AWS facility is
recycled. That’s an awful lot of copies of the Council’s in-house propaganda
sheet Carmarthenshire ‘News’.

In the whole of Carmarthenshire, that is, readers, in every
other site managed by the Council’s own notionally private enterprise, the
average recycling rate is below 55%.
If Llangadog closes residents would need to travel to
Ammanford. 25 miles away. How ‘green’ is that, readers? You force people to
take an hour and a half to travel backwards and forwards to a site which
recycles under two thirds as much as the facility far closer to hand.

The County Council’s disturbing lack of familiarity with the
geography of the county it is supposed to serve is alarming.

Last week, this
paper reported that the Council’s celebration of its ‘success’ in building a
new school near Llandeilo, ignored the human cost of transporting 400 students
every day from Llandovery and the small communities around it to the new shiny
building, leading to imminent closure for Ysgol
Gyfun Pantycelyn.

There is more to ‘public service’ than husbanding public
money readers. The ‘service’ element should count far higher than it does.
Shuffling thousands, if not hundreds of thousands and millions into the pet
projects of a coalition without an electoral mandate, while bowing the knee to
over-mighty officers is a betrayal of Carmarthenshire.

Our county really does
deserve an awful lot better than the current collection of rancid misfits and
halfwits who are allegedly running the show.

In a local authority in which the governing group has
condoned funding libel actions for its highest paid staff member and then gone
on to stomach a scheme to permit the same Chief Executive to attempt to stave
off a tax liability on his publicly funded pension, we can guess that pound
signs are more important than providing service.

The question on the latter point – as seems to have escaped
Kevin ‘Adequate’ Madge and the legion of the dumbed and damned that follow his
blustering lead – is not whether or not the decision was legally correct but
whether it was morally and objectively defensible. It was certainly morally
reprehensible and objectively flawed.

The Council was compelled to end the
scheme by the Wales Audit Office, which it did with the type of spectacular
ill-grace one would expect from a ten year old with their hands caught in the
cookie jar and not from a collection of old nags and knacker-man leavings who
really should have known better in the first place.

So, readers, the question the Council needs to ask itself
when considering withdrawing a local service should not be a calculation made
in pounds shillings and pence (although Cadno suspects that such is the quality
of debate in Carmarthenshire that LSD is in play somewhere). Leave the bean-counters and their like in
charge and we would all be driving beige Trabants and living in ‘efficiency’
apartments.

There are more important things for Councils to think about. The
effect of cuts and closures on rural communities, for one thing; the human cost
of decisions measured in lives affected and not in pennies saved for another.

Carmarthenshire County Council is very quick to blow its own
trumpet about the success of its waste management and recycling schemes. At the
moment, there seems to be an initiative a week.

Cadno suggests, however, that
the Council’s blathering on about its small ‘achievements’, pushing out
releases to be printed without query or criticism in publications over which it
has an editorial influence, masks a vacuum at its centre where common-sense and
compassion should sit.

Common-sense says that if you are serious about recycling you
do not close a plant which is delivering it better than other facilities. You
aim to bring your facilities – or that of your wholly owned subsidiary – up to
the mark.

If you are serious about the environment, you would know that a long
round trip to Ammanford or – worse – Nantycaws will lead to lower recycling
rates and – potentially – increased fly-tipping.
Spending £75,000 to make Llangadog prettier, or to put in
prettier speed bumps, as recently announced, is not going to replace ten jobs.

So, readers: which of the Executive Board will exercise
their common sense? Moreover, which of them actually have any?”

]]>0fugdhttp://www.fugd.info/?p=8802015-03-28T13:31:36Z2015-03-28T13:31:36ZNew York (CNN) – An explosion rocked a heavily traveled section of Manhattan’s East Village on Thursday, injuring several people and leveling parts of a building, authorities said.

At least one injury from a seven-alarm fire is critical, a fire department spokesman said.

Some people may be trapped in the blaze, a law enforcement source said.

The first two floors of a red-brick building at the scene appear to have crumbled, images from the scene showed.

The collapsed first floor appeared to house a Japanese restaurant; the building next door, with a shop specializing in French fries, was ablaze.

Towering flames and plumes of black smoke were rising from the building, which includes both apartments and businesses. Emergency personnel could be seen taking the injured away on stretchers. At least 200 firefighters were on the scene.

The official FDNY Twitter account described it as a “major building collapse.”

Emergency personnel are on scene for a building collapse in the area of East 7th and 2nd Avenue (MN) which will cause local street closures.

]]>0fugdhttp://www.fugd.info/?p=8782015-03-24T11:20:18Z2015-03-24T11:20:18ZAlthough clearly not connected to the ongoing police investigation, Operation Almond, Rhydgors Special school was back in the news today following a critical CSSIW report.
It followed an earlier Estyn report which found that its prospects for improvement were “unsatisfactory”.

With that in mind, it’s perhaps worth noting the most recent report from the Wales Audit Office regarding the council’s Child Safeguarding procedures which appears on the agenda for the next meeting of the Audit Committee.

You may also remember the public report issued by the Ombudsman in January which found serious failings in the council’s duty of care towards a four year old child.

The WAO report describes the procedures as “mostly adequate” – which in local government parlance means ‘could do a lot better’.

Anything less than a finding of ‘excellence’ should give serious cause for concern.

The report has found that there was no clear and defined safeguarding policy, and child safeguarding did not appear on the Corporate Risk Register. It also said that “Members…were unfamiliar with Risk Management as a concept”.

It also found that whilst the council operates Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) which checks the suitability of those working with children, this should be extended to all services which regularly come into contact with children. The inference here is that there is a possibility of holes in the net.

Another significant finding was a lack of safeguarding training with the take-up rate in Carmarthenshire Council well below the Wales average.

Significantly it found that neither the Executive Member for Safeguarding, nor the Chair of Scrutiny for Safeguarding “could report on having received safeguarding training which raises concerns about their ability to effectively deliver their responsibilities”
The Council also had a much higher than average percentage of people who had never received safeguarding training.

We can only hope things have improved.

Also rearing its ugly head on the Audit Committee agenda is the WAO annual audit of grant management procedures and yet again, for the third (or is it fourth?) year running, many of the same weaknesses have been identified.

Over half the grants put forward for audit were ‘qualified’ (ie something wrong) and nearly half of the claims had to be amended.

Due to the lack of significant improvement even though less grants were audited this year than last, the work involved has meant an increase in audit fees.

Similar problems have arisen as in previous years (covered every year by this blog) and the WAO have highlighted issues such as poor compliance with procurement rules and, in so many words, a lack of proper paper trails.

We also know that the South West Wales Property Fund grant, administered by Carmarthenshire council has been in the spotlight over the past year.

This arose after concerns were highlighted over ‘Meryl’s millions‘ and further concerns were reported to the WAO by the now retired Director of Resources, Roger Jones.
In December the WAO announced it was looking specifically at these grants, or a couple of them anyway.

The matter appears to be slowly progressing and this latest report states that;“due to concerns identified, we have also issued separate reports on the awarding of two grants under the EUR01 Property Development Fund grant. We await a response from the Council and will summarise our findings in a separate report”

So, there we are, we’ll have to wait and see.

Questions and concerns over the council’s grant management procedures were swiftly dismissed by the chief executive, Mark James last year who said that once they had a word with the Wales Audit Office, they usually ‘backed down’.

Unfortunately, as we know only too well, that arrogant and cavalier attitude is very familiar to anyone and everyone who has criticised the council in some way and is definitely not the best approach, nor mechanism for further scrutiny and improvement…

Lastly, and on a lighter note, the ‘Chairman’s Diary’ often provides a good illustration of that parallel universe inhabited by the pillars of Carmarthenshire Council.

In what only can be described as the ultimate sacrifice, the Mark James budget passed last month included a reduction of ‘official cars’ from two to one. How they will manage I don’t know.

Incidentally, I have to be careful what I say about who is actually in the ‘chauffeur driven limo’ as, surprisingly, it turned out to be a very touchy subject in the libel case. My argument that such archaic civic luxuries were wasteful and unnecessary, no matter who was being ferried around, fell on deaf ears.

Anyway, booked into the Diary for next Friday is a trip to Haverfordwest to attend the Pembrokeshire County Council Civic Dinner. Whoopee! Cllr Daff Davies, plus consort (presumably Mrs Daff) will be donning the gold plated regalia and cruising west to wine and dine with their Pembrokeshire counterparts.

One wonders if they will compare notes over the vol-au-vents on representing the two basket cases of Wales?

And what will the toast be in that Victorian parallel universe? “Ladies and gentlemen, raise your glasses please…..to our glorious chief executives, both past and present”!

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – The Seton Hall tennis team returns home on Sunday, opening a stretch of three consecutive BIG EAST matches by hosting rival Villanova.

Pirates Race Past Villanova; 5-2
The Seton Hall tennis team swept three doubles matches sand went on to post four straight-set singles victories at Villanova on Friday, cruising to their sixth win in the last seven matches and the program¡¯s sixth consecutive victory over the Wildcats.

The Hall (4-7, 0-1 BIG EAST) fell in its conference opener in a one-point decision against Georgetown but is coming off a dominant 9-0 victory over Vanguard that closed a spring break trip to San Diego in which the team out-scored its opponents, 17-10, over three matches.

Four Pirates posted multiple singles victories over the three-match swing as junior Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) and senior Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) provided strength at opposite ends of the lineup while Isabell Klingert (Oberbalbach, Germany) and Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) each added a pair of wins as well.

An All-BIG EAST honoree as a sophomore who has already been tabbed as the conference’s Player of the Week this spring, Liljekvist continued to excel from the top position for SHU, moving to 8-4 in dual match action with point-scoring efforts against Cal State-Los Angeles and Vanguard.

Liljekvist also went into the trip coming off a victory at #1 over Georgetown’s Victoire Saperstein – a match that featured two more individual wins for the Pirates as Klingert and classmate Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) got on the board as well.

Despite dropping her first match of the spring in the opener against Cal State-LA, Klingert rebounded to take her final two matches in the Golden State and heads into Sunday with a 12-1 record in 2015 and 9-2 dual match ledger in her first season in blue white. The Gonzaga transfer has accumulated three wins at the fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively, greatly improving Seton Hall’s strength throughout the entire lineup.

No Pirate posted more than three wins at #6 last season and the Pirates were 19-22 between the fifth and sixth spots overall.

The senior Guryanova has added to the resurgence in the second half of the lineup with straight set wins in all four of her appearances at #6 this spring, two of which came during the trip to the bay area.

The Moscow native is now 14-4 (.778) in a dual match setting for her career and 38-19 (.667) as an individual in all competitions.

Shoemaker has also returned to form of late while playing a similar role, recording four wins in her last six outings. In 2013-14, Shoemaker, Liljekvist and Keenan all contributed multiple victories against league opponents for a squad that posted wins against Providence and Villanova and came within a single point of two more BIG EAST victories in the regular season.

SHU closed the season by blanking Butler in the consolation round of the conference tournament.

Following the graduation of senior leaders Chloe Sher and Rocio Portela, The Hall welcomed a trio of freshmen that have stepped in and assumed integral roles.

Given the absence of fellow newcomer Luize Strike (Riga, Latvia) who has missed the last seven matches, freshmen Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Marisa Quevedo (Tyler, Texas) have been asked to occupy the second and third positions and each broke through in a major way last time out against Vanguard.

Kim breezed past Ashley Wao-Udin (#3) while Quevedo dominated Gabriele Alford (#2) and the pair of rookies yielded a total of three games in the two victories.

Kim and Shoemaker have been a doubles force at #2 for head coach Greg Wyzykowskias welland the Pirates as a whole have bounced back from their early season struggles to record 11 wins on the doubles court over the last six outings.

Liljekvist, Keenan, Guryanova and Shoemaker all contributed to a Seton Hall sweep in doubles competition as The Hall scored a 5-2 road win over VU last spring. Overall, the Pirates’ last three triumphs over Villanova have come by an aggregate score of 16-to-5 and the Wildcats brought a 2-8 record into the weekend. `Nova was bested by five points in its only previous conference match against St. John’s (3/17) and will be facing a quick turnaround after taking on Lehigh on Saturday morning.

A seventh consecutive win in the series could help the Pirates build momentum with a meeting against the 8-4 Xavier Musketeers on the horizon as the two teams are set to meet on Friday, March 27; marking the first encounter between the two programs since XU bounced The Hall from the 2014 BIG EAST Tournament.

SHU will be keen on taking care of business against the Wildcats first however as Sunday’s showdown will have seeding implication for this year’s edition of the conference championship.

Start-time is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and the site has been moved to the NJIT tennis courts in Newark, N.J.

]]>0fugdhttp://www.fugd.info/?p=8762015-03-22T10:38:09Z2015-03-22T10:38:09ZA joke that perpetuates negative or derogatory stereotypes of women is a reflection and contributor to societal attitudes

From: Katniss Everdeeny, by email

Can one get away defending offensive jokes about women and claim to stand up for women’s rights in the same breath?

Apparently so, as Vince Chong has shown, with the help of supporters and a mass media that did little but perpetuate his narrative of it being “nothing more than a good laugh”.

He goes on to further mock those who pointed out the sexist post by reposting it on his FB, and repeatedly using women as leverage to deflect the issue; from how it was his aunt who had sent him that joke, to how his wife thinks it’s okay, and his association with Ikal Mayang, a film project that supports women in filmmaking.

Perhaps what’s worse than the sexist post, were the attempts to whitewash sexism, using women or “women’s movements” at that. I’m sure Vince did not intend to condone sexism, as he did not intend to “offend” anyone with that joke.

But would it be okay if he posted a derogatory joke mocking indigenous people on indigenous people’s day? Or one that jokes about a negative stereotype of Muslims or Christians? Would his family still be rallying around him and say it’s all for a good laugh? I’m guessing not.

But a sexist joke is okay because his my mother, aunt, wife thinks it’s ok? No, it is not okay. That none of the publications or opinion pieces in mainstream media calls it for what it is – a piece of sexist humour that does exactly the opposite of what International Women’s Day is all about – says a lot too.

Those who spoke out against it were denounced by his followers (women included), as people who are “giving feminism a bad name” etc. These comments that supported his sexist post – some of which were quite sexist themselves – are publicly available on his FB page.

There will only be a silver lining to this episode if it brings into awareness how prevalent and ingrained prejudiced societal attitudes are towards women, and how that relates to violence against women. A joke that perpetuates negative or derogatory stereotypes of women is a reflection and contributor to societal attitudes that allows, impacts on, and compounds upon the issues and injustices women face.

A quick search on sexist humour shows the following research:

“Jokes about blondes and women drivers are not just harmless fun and games; instead, exposure to sexist humor can lead to toleration of hostile feelings and discrimination against women, according to new research. “Specifically, we propose that sexist humour acts as a ‘releaser’ of prejudice,” says one of the researchers.”

A lengthier critique on sexist jokes can be found elsewhere such as one on Huffpost which says, “They (sexist jokes) normalise sexism and hostility towards women in a way that most people don’t even realise because these types of “jokes” are so omnipresent in our society. … Sexist jokes not only allow men (and sadly, women) to believe that sexist behaviour falls within the bounds of social acceptability, it also reveals people’s deep-rooted – and often undetected – prejudices about a woman’s place in our world.”

Instead of just asking the women around him as justification, a public figure like Vince Chong could do well to seek clarification with established women’s NGOs in Malaysia such as AWAM, WAO, or SIS. Event organisers who aim to “empower women” may also want to send themselves for gender-sensitisation workshops with one of these NGOs.

When Vince Chong has stopped reacting from this fiasco, one would hope he takes a moment to reflect, and ask himself if this is really what he stands for; as a public figure, how would you want the future generation to look back at public records and remember you as?

With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer’s personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider.

There needs to be the recognition that women’s rights are human rights as well, said the new Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) executive director Sumitra Visvanathan.

She said getting rid of the strong imbalance between men and women’s rights needed an attitudinal change, which she had seen in many men and women, but more awareness was necessary.

Sumitra agreed that one of the ways forward was by having more women in politics, which would not only effect the mindset of adults, but also children.

In this second part of a recent interview with The Rakyat Post, the law graduate shared all this and more on her belief that Malaysians needed to go back to their Constitution as the basis for gender equality.

Q: Despite the roles of women having changed today, there were still many areas for concern in the way women still needed to conform to certain roles and behaviour. Why do you think it’s so hard for society to accept otherwise?

A: It’s because the patriarchy is so deeply ingrained in our community and other communities around the world. In fact. in our community and societies, there is a strong imbalance between men and women, with attitudes and cultural norms amplified and strengthened, so there really needs an attitudinal shift.

Organisations like WAO are trying to do this. There needs to be an understanding that there is inequality that needs to be addressed.

I think the way to do it is to make it really clear to policy makers, faith leaders, business leaders and also to all in the community, how damaging it is when there’s imbalance in equality.

When women are unable to participate equally in development of our country, it affects the development of our country. If the reason why they are unable to participate fully is because there is no one else to take care of their kids, it’s a problem.

It happens because the linkages are not being made. It’s also not being recognised that women’s rights are human rights. It comes as a package of human rights and they are all interconnected and meaningfully implemented to make a difference.

In the Malaysian budget, for instance, it’s not enough to say we are going to give employers incentives to open crèche. Instead of giving incentives, which is great, why don’t we think about something more meaningful with a wider reach?

Set up government-led childcare centres in the community so I can just walk a short distance, drop my kids and take the public transport to work.

When the gender perspective is mainstreamed in the budget process, only then will we be able to develop and implement government policies that can achieve gender equality for women.

Q: In that respect, with calls for more women in politics in Malaysia, would this change the way people perceive women and their roles in society?

A: Absolutely. Seeing a woman in position of authority, speaking in Parliament, in ceramah (speeches), where she is talking about not just concerns of women, but concerns of everyone and issues of the day where she has a position, it’s a very powerful image. Not just for adults, but children.

Children will grow up accepting that everyone has an equal stake in our political process.

It’s critically important to know there is an under representation and from what we can all see and perceive, just from media reporting, that within political groups even it is difficult for women to step forward and say I’m a female candidate, I have issues, I’m also able to bring up issues beneficial for everyone, so take me seriously.

Sometimes you see political figures who are derided because of something about them that makes them female.

Q: Statistically speaking, what is the rate in which women are being abused or harassed? Are they increasing or decreasing?

A: In terms of whether the abuse and harassment is growing, it’s a bit hard to say. I’m not sure that we have the statistics in Malaysia.

But a study by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) on domestic violence revealed (last May) that there is a 9% prevalence rate, which makes up 800,000 women in relationships who face domestic violence.

But if you look at the statistics on the number of reports made on domestic violence, it does not commensurate, it is much lower and there are reasons for that.

When a woman makes a report, there’s a high chance she will pull back the report because she doesn’t want to see him go to jail, or want the family to break up. She just wants the violence to stop.

We feel it is principally because of that, looking at the number of reports is an inaccurate indicator of the problem, but initiatives like the USM study are important.

We do have our own data. We capture a lot of data from our beneficiaries, from our cases, and we’ve been capturing that data for the past ten years. But there is no control group, it’s solely of our clients.

We have very good idea of what kind of abuse is being perpetrated, how often it takes place, where it takes place, what effect it has and what the likelihood is of a case being prosecuted in court.

If we use general indicators, like our hotline, there is a general sense that the need is becoming more pronounced. There are certain trends we are seeing, like the psychological abuse is actually quite serious.

When there is actual, physical violence, it is frequently being done by people who are also involved in other kinds of crimes. Is that really an indicator of a trend within society nationwide? We can’t say.

Q: With the direction in which Malaysia is going today, with uncertainty of whether we want to be a moderate society and implementation of laws like hudud and such, what does all this mean for the position of women in the country?

A: I think it is really important to go back to the basics, and the basic document we need to go back to and stick by is the Federal Constitution. Constitutionally, there is equality between men and women.

Our founding fathers and mothers wanted to create an equal society and this is across the board with all new countries coming out of colonialism. We had that experience of being suppressed on so many different levels for so many different reasons.

So when the new country of Malaya emerged, it was so important for us to be equal and there was equality across our communities and we have to go back to that spirit of Merdeka.

During the time I spent in Iraq, where there is a huge problem with equality and segmentation of society, you find that the people who perpetrate a certain policy that keeps others down don’t necessarily believe in it themselves. But they do it because they feel it is going to somehow lead them to a position of stronger, greater political power.

But, for us, we are not interested in the politics of the situation. We are interested only in the issues. We are an issue-based organisation and for us the issue is preventing and responding to domestic violence.

We understand that it is rooted and it occurs because power and control are taken away from women, because in our society, men and women are essentially unequal.

So that’s what we really want to focus on, rather than focusing on which group is regressive and which group is anti-this or pro-that. It really doesn’t matter.

What matters is we go back to our Constitution and that is what gives us our rights. The Constitution truly tells you what it means to be a Malaysian.